Starship: First Steps to Empire

by R J Murray

  Chapter 4 The Other Guys

  “Entering ships north passageway.”

  “Roger that.” Eric fumed slightly. He had not realized that having a crew meant missing out on the fun. Captains stayed in the ship while lieutenants went out there and saw stuff first. In this case his first officer and two other men were having the fun. He leaned back in his chair and watched the instruments, along with his flight crew. He didn’t even need to be in the bridge but he was damned if he would miss everything.

  Lee and the Ryu were headed for the second ships position only two weeks away. Between them, they hoped to find some information on who to trust.

  “Hatch is open. Bodies are present.” A miniature Sam Reed moved in for a closer view of a ten thousand year old corpse. The face on the screen would have never passed as human, even in life. The eye sockets were in the wrong place, first of all, no visible nose but it did have ears, on top of its head. The head could have been round, it was hard to tell in the view screen and shadows kept dancing across the face. Lots of hair, all over. Not much in the way of clothing visible.

  Reed moved into the bridge, almost identical to the one Eric was sitting in. More bodies floating around and a surprise. There were two different species in the bridge. Eric watched as photos were taken and dimensions measured. The second race had scales instead of hair and were taller than Eric by about 20 centimeters, the furry ones a little more. Beaks replaced mouths on the scaly bodies. The furry had fangs like a tiger and stronger jaws. Each had claws instead of fingernails on their three fingered hands with a dewclaw on the opposable thumbs. The furry ones had a longer killing claw almost twelve centimeters in length on their feet.

  “Does that make them more primitive or just different?” Cherenkov asked.

  “They had starships ten thousand years ago, so they can’t be too primitive.” Eric answered. “Just because they look like something out of the Stone Age doesn’t mean we should think of them that way, hard as it may be to avoid.”

  “Yes Sir. I see what you mean.”

  “The bridge doesn’t seem to have taken much damage, not like the rest of the ship at least. I’m plugging Jane in to what appears to be the computer terminal.” Reed could be seen in the suit cameras of the other two crew members with him, hovering over a consol for several minutes. The hard suits didn’t bend much so sometimes you ended up standing on your head to examine something of interest.

  Aboard the Pathfinder, additional standard space suits took up even more space in East Bay Three, one for each crew member. Three more hard suits added to the collection, all of which were being worn by the team aboard the alien space craft. Crew personal effects, food stuffs, more plants for the hydroponics, extra toilet paper, tools, med kits, it all had to be off loaded from the Ryu and space found for everything aboard Pathfinder. Eric finally sent a quarter of his remaining probes to the Ryu in order to make space available. The other ships had a full complement of probes, one bay full, but the Ryu had none since there was no room for probes and a double crew. Strangely enough, his inventory was off but Eric had more to worry about than a few probes.

  “This console is dead. Permission to bring the hard drives back to the Pathfinder.”

  “Affirmative. If you can reach crews quarters, check for those devices and drives I showed you earlier as long as you can do so safely.” Eric answered.

  “That’s affirmative Sir. I can handle this if Royce and Gomez can go check out crew quarters.” Reed queried.

  “Negative. Stay together. We have lots of time. No need for anyone to be out there alone.” Eric answered.

  “Really.” Reed said under his breath. Several members of the flight crew grinned and two actually tried to smother laughter.

  Eric realized just how it sounded when he had been alone for two and a half years, plus the months exploring the alien ship alone. “Yes, we have help now so we will use it. Just because those people back home couldn’t get their act together and sent me out alone doesn’t mean we should take too many chances now. Trust me; I would have given my right arm to have you along on the first part of the trip.” Eric tried to keep his voice light and humorous.

  “Yes Sir. Sorry Sir.” He sounded contrite. Probably didn’t realize how sensitive the mikes were.

  “Don’t stop asking Mr. Reed. Situations change all the time.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  “How long to remove the drive, roughly?” Eric asked.

  “Forty five minutes minimum.”

  “I’ll come over. Gomez and I can check out the crew quarters while you and Royce work on the console.”

  “Pardon Captain, but shouldn’t someone else come over?” Reed asked.

  “The hard suit is built for me. Most people don’t like sharing a piss tube anyway, sterilization procedures or not.”

  “That would be bad. Looking forward to seeing you Sir.”

  ~~~~~~

  There wasn’t much left of the passageways leading through the ship. The stress of the breakup twisted the frames and ripped bulkheads. Eric found it easier to just ignore the passages and use the holes for egress. For one of the few times since this began, Eric was glad of the suits armor.

  “Gotta twist a bit here Gomez. Nasty chunk of something blocking most of the area.”

  “I see it Sir. It really looks like a big drill from up here.”

  Eric looked up. He was under the thing and had not really paid as much attention to what it was as to how to get safely past. “Take a few seconds and get video from the top. I’ll do the same down here.”

  “Yes Sir.” Gomez didn’t ask why.

  A few vague thoughts were floating around in the back of Eric’s mind, but nothing he could put his finger on. A few minutes of video would not change the time needed to finish the exploration of the wreck. After several minutes, Gomez squeezed past and they continued through the remains.

  ~~~~~~

  “So give me some good news.” Eric looked up at the screen at Phil and Horace.

  “Not much here I’m afraid. Ship was badly mangled either during the fight or after, no survivors. Data from the computer is so badly degraded that it is going to take months for Betty to get anything out of it, if then. Data drives from the crews’ quarters were melted and nothing bigger than my brain survived intact and right now, my brain is the size of a gnat. We took video of a piece of machinery that jiggled something in the back of my head but I am at a loss to tell you what or why.”

  “Show us the vids and maybe we can help.” Horace asked.

  “Send them please Mr. Hong.”

  “Yes Sir.” The com man pushed a few buttons and the data was sent.

  “We’ll look it over. You still at the wreck site?” Phil asked.

  “No. We are headed for site three to join Lee. Be there in another week. Site one is dead as far as we are concerned. We gave the ship a nudge toward the closest star system. It will get there in about eight hundred years. The star should capture it if we ever want to look it over again, assuming we or our descendents care about antiques by then. We have a few bodies in the freezer and our medic is checking them out. The alien mainframe and whatever other bits we could find are under scrutiny. You hear Lee’s report on the second ship?”

  “Yeah. Bits and pieces, lots of tiny bits and pieces. Too bad. A working computer would be nice. Asi has been cooperative up to a point but still says he needs permission or proof positive that his people no longer exist to give out any data considered sensitive. Control has not given permission to head for any of the planets on the nav charts. Says it could be a political ploy on the part of the computer.” Phil snickered.

  “Ploy. They used that word? Why didn’t they send me the message?” Eric asked.

  “You are suspect. Possibly under alien control. Don’t tell them I said so though because it’s a secret. They don’t realize that we have been in physical contact with these things ourselves and they still think the Ryu is on the way here. We did not correct any of these
ideas.” Horace winked at the screen as he combed lunch debris out of his beard. “On a serious and confusing note, we are getting a different feel from the Council than from the Directors. A second level came by control and Director Bergeson left with him and a few big guys with guns. Bergeson was cuffed. The message to control was to let us work and no more threats. Did someone threaten you?”

  “Couple of times by Bergeson. I took care of it on this end. Do you recycle that stuff?” Eric asked, still pondering the message from control.

  Horace laughed. “My crew has a pot going on the contents and life expectancy thereof. Truthfully, it all goes into the converter. Not that they believe me. They think I save it all for snacks after lights out.”

  “Horace and I have decided to head for the closest world on the charts and Asi has agreed. He will accompany us to see if there are any survivors. Control has not responded to our decision and probably won’t since that means making a decision and that means telling the government what is going on out here.” Phil said.

  “They don’t know?” Eric asked.

  “Not all of it. Not even most of it. The second level gave some pretty clear orders on the line of authority and chains of communication. You found a wreck and we are checking it out. After that, the lid went on and a special committee of two took charge. A few people at mission control and the Committee are the only ones that have full knowledge. The rest of the planet is in the dark about almost everything.” Phil said.

  “But, they are building more ships anyway. Seems we have had great success at finding new worlds and they need ships to transport colonists. Some of the planets have hostile life so the new ships will have a few weapons. Couple of rifles, a few troops, six nukes, that sort of thing.” Horace stopped smiling. “That was also from the second level Councilor. Not sure how he knew or why he thought we found anything yet.”

  “You’re serious. New worlds? Not counting the dead ones? When did we do that?” Eric asked. “That part about the Committee bothers me. Two people can make a lot of decisions faster than twenty.”

  “We found the as soon as we get to the first one about six weeks from now. You have the coordinates of the closest one to us, right? That is where we’re going and Asi is leading the way since he is armed. Keep your fingers crossed. Asgard out.”

  “Good luck Eric. Courageous out.”

  ~~~~~~

  “Lee, you out there?” Eric waited. He could only see one ship at the coordinates, the furry ship Lee was supposed to be investigating. It was inside a star system with dozens of almost planets and thousands of leftovers bits. The sun was a small yellow star not unlike Sol.

  “We’re here Eric. Do not approach. Something is still shooting at us. Not sure from where. We took a hit and jumped out to the ice belt to repair and wait for you. We just got the com back up when we heard you call.”

  “Lots of rocks around here. Could be any one of them is a base or a ship leftover from the war.” Eric suggested.

  “You don’t seem surprised that there is still active equipment around.” Lee said.

  “Nano’s keep things running without any living intervention. If they had a battle here and the crews were killed, nanobots would repair the equipment and wait for orders. This close to a sun, they would have solar power cells, I’m sure, and wouldn’t run out of energy for some time.” Even as he spoke, it sounded wrong to Eric, but he had no other ideas to turn to as yet.

  “Still, ten thousand years . . .”

  “So who shot at you? Any casualties?”

  “No, thank the Maker. Near miss with a small nuke. The EMP took out some electronics. That’s how we lost the com.” Lee answered.

  “Did the nanobots help with repairs?”

  “Not sure. It seemed like it took a lot longer than it did for them to fix other items. Why?”

  Eric grinned. The puzzle pieces fit. “That’s how they took out Asi. We found what looked like a big mining drill on the other wreck. They used it to get through the shields and armor then knocked everything out from the inside with an EMP or something similar. That could be why Asi is covered in rock too, to give them more time to dislodge the drill.”

  “Got to be one fast drill. They’d shoot it down on the way, wouldn’t they?” Lee asked.

  “Not if they docked and went hand to hand. Boarding parties, muskets and blades, maybe teeth and claws for all I know. I think these furry guys could be interesting.”

  “They would have to match speed and follow all maneuvers with their own to stay attached. Could be they just attached the drill and ran.” Lee said.

  “I like my way better. I’ve scanned the ship and the area. I don’t see any activity

  “We didn’t either.” Lee said. “Not until the nuke detonated.”

  “Check your nanobots for me.”

  ~~~~~~

  The Ryu closed with the dead space ship, getting close enough to dock with it.

  “No activity. How did you know?” Lee asked.

  “Well, it was just a hunch. This is a Furry stronghold and anything with nanobots is the enemy maybe or maybe not. Could be some other defense mechanism and it ran down after shooting at you. Your nanobots are knocked out and mine are active for the moment so we tried it this way.”

  “Your hunches are scary, you know. Following them can take years off my already short life. So they don’t have nanobots?”

  “Or these nanobots are different that the ones on the Astangii. Another or, it has nothing to do with nanobots, different signal from the drive, different something and these people can detect that difference. The ships look and act alike, same star drive and similar designs, so there has to be some way to tell them apart.”

  “An electronic signature. Scan the ships for any emissions.” Lee said to someone off screen.

  “Mr. Reed, any ideas?” Eric asked.

  “No Sir. You seem to have covered most of them already. Scanning star system for electronic emissions. Any idea how much the nanobots can take before they go inactive? If it’s less than our equipment we can get rid of them and join the fun, assuming that is what triggered the attack.”

  “And here I thought you had no ideas. Why don’t you and Shapiro go find out.”

  “Yes Sir.” Reed motioned to Shapiro and they both left the bridge.

  “Do you really want to destroy your nanobots?” Lee asked.

  “We can pop some in a box and leave them behind, pick them up later. I want to see this base if it exists.”

  ~~~~~~

  “It doesn’t take much to knock the nanobots out and only a bit more to kill them permanently. They are very susceptible to certain unusual forms of electromagnetic energy. We built a few portable generators and can wipe out every nano in the ship if you want.” Shapiro held a device that looked like a rifle with a large flat box in place of the barrel. “You have beam in this position,” he flipped a switch. “And omni directional in this position. Range is one hundred meters with omni and three hundred with beam.”

  “Our computer safe from that?” Eric asked.

  “Mostly. Don’t stick it in the mainframe for more than twenty seconds at full power and Betty should be fine.” Reed said. “We boxed up a few thousand nanobots and put them out the airlock with a beeper on it. Should be able to find it easy later.”

  “Good. How long to wipe the ship?” Eric asked.

  “Six hours. We have several of these distributed. Just waiting for the word.”

  “The word is given.” Eric answered.

  ~~~~~~

  “Lee, you find anything interesting yet?”

  “Ryu to Pathfinder. You ever going to learn com procedure?” Lee answered.

  “Been alone to long. We are clean, I hope. Heading for the closer planetoid at system position delta three-five-seven-point-six-six. Seems to be some metallic structures present. How are you doing?”

  “First, we were scanned heavy on approach from somewhere just like before, but no shots fired. They may be out of ammo. A
irlock wouldn’t open so we cut our way in with no problem. This ship was alive when it arrived here but it died a long time ago. Minor damage, some evidence of repairs and Marty is chatting with Ziblegriff.”

  “Who?” Eric asked.

  “My computer is chatting with their computer. We can’t pronounce the name but it answers to Ziblegriff so we are happy. Lots of stuff over here and signs that the crew left in a hurry. Clothing bits and pieces, personal effects, food still on the table. We think it’s food. It looks like a mess hall at least. I’m sending you all the data we have so far.”

  “Do they have a drill weapon aboard?”

  “They sure do. It looks like it could be used only with the ship in position hull to hull. Your armed boarding party seems to be accurate. These guys may be ugly, but they didn’t lack for courage. Drill a hole, withdraw the drill and enter through the hole. They have nanobots too, but not quite the same model and none alive. We tried the device Reed told us about to wipe the ship first and these guys are a lot tougher. We also reviewed that battle they had and it seems the Astangii ships were doing their best to keep away from the Furry ships. The Furrys like it up close and personal.

  “The other ones seem to be related to the Furrys. The ones with scales. I mean DNA, they do share most of that. I think they were both from the same planet, two intelligent species evolving independently on the same world. We are finding a lot of those home movie things here too, in the crews quarters. Marty broke their language pretty easily once we got Zible up and running. We don’t have the mouth organs to pronounce it properly but she can translate it to common.” Lee continued.

  “We’re coming up on the planetoid. Call you back later. Pathfinder out.” Eric’s hair stood up on the back of his neck. How could equipment survive so long?

  “Ryu out.”

  “What do we have Mr. Reed?” Eric asked.

  “Heavy scanning from planetoid. Signs of weapons lock but nothing coming out after us yet. Surface heavily pitted and some lingering radiation. About one hundred and twenty kilometers in diameter about the long axis, eighty-five on the short. Just a big lumpy rock.”